Retailer Tesco accounts for a third of all UK GTA 5 sales

A third of all GTA 5 sales made in the UK went through supermarket giant Tesco, newly reported figures have revealed.

With the blockbuster gaming release helping boost the UK’s entire entertainment sector, latest sales figures have revealed that specialist retailers such as HMV were left out in the cold by the big supermarket chains, with Asda also singled out as a key GTA 5 seller.

“The games market has grown by an impressive 29 per cent compared with the same period last year,” Fiona Keenan, a Strategic Insight Director with analyst firm Kantar has stated in a new report. She added: “Tesco has been the big winner of the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, collecting over a third of all money spent on the title during the two weeks after its release.”

With 1.57 million copies of GTA 5 sold in the UK during the games opening 24 hours alone, this 30 per cent share of sales is expected to account for a pretty sizeable figure.

Spreading the GTA 5 love, she stated: “Asda and GAME also benefitted, both growing their shares compared with last year.”

Giving the entire industry a sizeable boost, GTA 5 became the biggest entertainment release in history, generating more than $1 billion worth of global sales in just three days.

Thanks to its staggering percentage of the UK’s GTA 5 sales, Tesco has seen its share of the entertainment sector jump 5.2 per cent, from 11.9 per cent in Q3 2012 to 17.1 per cent during the same period this year. While Asda has also seen its share of the entertainment market increase 2.3 per cent, HMV has been the big loser, dropping a considerable 7.4 per cent year-on-year to just a 10.6 per cent UK market share.

Despite the supermarkets having dominated the big software launches, Keenan has predicted that when it comes to hardware, specialist retailers still reign supreme.

“It will be interesting to see if the success of the supermarkets in the games sector continues this Christmas with the release of PS4 and Xbox One,” the Kantar analyst added.

She added: “GAME and Amazon are leading the way in pre-orders so far, and we expect specialist gaming retailers to do particularly well in the run-up to launch as consumers look for help and advice.”